23 Sep
2022
23 Sep
'22
5:41 p.m.
On 9/23/22 12:53, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Prime 850 had a 4 or 5 position switch and a push button.
I think there may have been a power light but I don't
remember for sure.
bill
On Sep 23, 2022, at 12:45 PM, Chuck Guzis via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 9/22/22 22:56, ben via cctalk wrote:
Those are good examples, but is it "many" or just those two and maybe one or
two more? For example, Burroughs and IBM mainframes were both very much "lights and
switches" control panel type machines. For that matter, so were the other CDC
products; the 6000 series was a bit of an outlier I think.
Blinking lights tended to be for computers of the
future.
World maps with lights where nuclear missiles could strike
seem to be movie props only.
I thought it curious that many 1960s-1970s
supercomputers lacked front
panels and blinking lights altogether. (e.g. Cray I, CDC
Cyber/600/700, etc.) Indeed, the Cray couldn't even spin a tape without
help from another system doing the I/O.